Glossary
A voyage during which the vessel is not laden with cargo.
A charter of a vessel under which the vessel-owner is usually paid a fixed daily or monthly rate for a certain period of time during which the charterer is responsible for the ship operating expenses and voyage expenses of the vessel and for the management of the vessel. In this case, all voyage related costs, including vessel fuel, or bunker, and port dues as well as all vessel operating costs, such as day-to-day operations, maintenance, crewing and insurance are paid by the charterer. A bareboat charter is also known as a “demise charter” or a “time charter by demise” and involves the use of a vessel usually over longer periods of time ranging over several years The owner of the vessel receives monthly charterhire payments on a per day basis and is responsible only for the payment of capital costs related to the vessel.
Fuel oil used to operate a vessel’s engines, generators and boilers.
A dry bulk vessel ranging from 100,000 to 199,999 dwt.
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.
The hiring of a vessel, or use of its carrying capacity, for either (1) a specified period of time or (2) to carry a cargo for a fixed fee from a loading port to a discharging port. The contract for a charter is called a charterparty.
The amount of money agreed between the charterer and the vessel-owner accrued on a daily or monthly basis that is used to calculate the vessel’s charterhire.
The party that hires a vessel pursuant to a charter.
Money paid to the vessel-owner by a charterer for the use of a vessel under a time charter or bareboat charter. Such payments are usually made during the course of the charter every 15 or 30 days in advance or in arrears by multiplying the daily charter rate times the number of days and, under a time charter only, subtracting any time the vessel was deemed to be off-hire. Under a bareboat charter such payments are usually made monthly and are calculated on a 360 or 365 day calendar year basis.
An independent society that certifies that a vessel has been built and maintained according to the society’s rules for that type of vessel and complies with the applicable rules and regulations of the country in which the vessel is registered, as well as the international conventions which that country has ratified. A vessel that receives its certification is referred to as being “in class” as of the date of issuance.
The seaborne coal trade is comprised of two different types of coal; steam coal (which is used for electricity generation and industrial uses), and coking coal (which is the key ingredient for steelmaking).
The management of the employment, or chartering, of a vessel and associated functions, including seeking and negotiating employment for vessels, billing and collecting revenues, issuing voyage instructions, purchasing fuel, and appointing port agents.
A commercial pool is a group of similar size and quality vessels with different shipowners that are placed under one administrator or manager. Pools offer participants opportunities for scheduling and other operating efficiencies such as multi-legged charters and Contracts of Affreightment and other operating efficiencies.
A contract of affreightment, or COA, relates to the carriage of specific quantities of cargo with multiple voyages over the same route and over a specific period of time which usually spans a number of years. A COA does not designate the specific vessels or voyage schedules that will transport the cargo, thereby providing both the charterer and ship owner greater operating flexibility than with voyage charters alone. The charterer has the flexibility to determine the individual voyage scheduling at a future date while the ship owner may use different ships to perform these individual voyages. As a result, COAs are mostly entered into by large fleet operators such as pools or ship owners with large fleets of the same vessel type. All of the ship’s operating, voyage and capital costs are borne by the ship owner while the freight rate normally is agreed on a per cargo ton basis.
A unit of a vessel’s capacity for cargo, fuel oil, stores and crew, measured in metric tons of 1,000 kilograms. A vessel’s dwt or total deadweight is the total weight necessary to submerge the vessel to its maximum permitted draft.
Additional revenue paid to the shipowner on its Voyage Charters for delays experienced in loading and/or unloading cargo, which are not deemed to be the responsibility of the shipowner, calculated in accordance with specific Charter terms.
